Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Lion Edition

That One-Button Mouse

You can get terrific mileage out of shortcut menus on the Mac, just as in Windows (Figure 1-2).

Figure 1-2. A shortcut menu is one that pops out of something you’re clicking—an icon, a button, a folder. The beauty of a shortcut menu is that its commands are contextual. They bring up useful commands in exactly the spots where they’re most useful, in menus that are relevant to what you’re clicking.

Shortcut menus are so important, in fact, that it’s worth this ink and this paper to explain the different ways you can trigger a right-click (or a secondary click, as Apple calls it, because not all these methods actually involve a second mouse button, and it doesn’t have to be the right-side one):

• Control-click. You can open the shortcut menu of something on the Mac screen by Control-clicking it. That is, while pressing the Control key (bottom row), click the mouse on your target.

• Right-click. Windows veterans have always used the one-handed method: right-clicking. That is, clicking something by pressing the right mouse button on a two-button mouse.

  “Ah, but that’s what’s always driven me nuts about Apple,” goes the common refrain. “Their refusal to get rid of their stupid one-button mouse!”

  Well, not so fast.

  First of all, you can attach any old $6 USB two-button mouse to the Mac, and it’ll work flawlessly. Use the one from your old PC, if you like.

  Furthermore, if you’ve ...